Follow through.....

[Canny Tim]

Hi. I find myself struggling with follow through when playing pool. I get into my stance fine but when it comes the feathering the problems start. When I'm trying to hit short or medium shots I can't seem to hit the ball with out panicking and pushing it rather than hitting it. I'm constantly looking at the cue ball and feathering inconstantly. In snooker I believe that you drive your hand into your chest but this doesn't seem to work with pool (creates too much power on shorter shots). Please help.

[Tiger800]

shorten your bridge, this will also shorten your back swing.

[Canny Tim]

What do you mean? How will this help with the final hit? I'm struggling to hit the ball smooth with a decent follow through.

[alabadi]

i think the secret with the top spin is not to hit it hard, by hitting it hard you will get a stun action. on a pool table you don't have far to go from top to bottom anyway. it is also important to keep the cue level as possible, i see many players although aiming at the top of the cueball raise the butt so in effect they are hitting down and their cue is not doing through straight.

make sure you cue smoothly and always finish at the chest

[CoachGavin]

If you are hitting the ball too hard shorten your backswing. By bringing the cue back only a few inches your power will be reduced and you can still finish at the chest with your grip.

[Canny Tim]

Are there any videos with this? When they say "drive into chest" should I be practically hitting it or just touching softly?

[Terry Davidson]

canny:

The terminology is 'drive the grip hand through to the chest on EVERY shot'. If it's a high power shot then the hand (back of the thumb actually) is driving into the chest quite hard but not enough to bruise the chest. If it's a low power shot then the grip hand comes to the chest.

To be more accurate what this really means is you must accelerate the cue through and BEYOND the cueball. You should maintain the acceleration of the cue until the hand hitting the chest stops the drive.

Terry

[Canny Tim]

Thanks for the all the replies I'll work on that now, Terry.